Hanoi is renowned for such foods as bun cha- minced pork dumplings grilled on charcoal, served with rice vermicelli,fresh herbs and a specially prepared fish sauce"Bun rieu cua"- vermicelli cooked with ground small crabs,and "Banh tom" - fried cakes with shrimps and sliced sweet potatoes.

Pho is especially popular for breakfast, another delicious Vietnamese soup. Pho is a noodle soup with either beef (either tai, medium, or chin,well-done) or with chicken. Southern Vietnamese add sauce made from pickled soybeans , chili sauce, herbs, and bean sprouts.

Grilled pork with noodle (Bun cha) though often sold at small and modest stands on many street corners in Ha Noi, is always one of the most popular dishes for Hanoians. They often have Bun Cha for lunch when they have no time for well prepared lunch.

For a portion of bun cha, you take a dish of rice vermicelli, a dish full of vegetables and a bowl of fish sauce flavoured with vinegar, sugar, hot chilly, garlic and pepper is indispensable.

Bun cha is just a noodle dish. It comes, as mentioned above, in three components: the green (veggies), the white (noodles), and the golden (broth).

Eating banh cuon for breakfast is a great favorite among many Vietnamese. Banh cuon is made of rice flour. Thoroughly selected rice is soaked overnight, then ground with a stone mortar. Food preservatives are put into the flour to make the rice sheets softer and smoother. A screen of cloth used to mold the rice sheets is fitted over the opening of a pot of boiling water. Flour is spread on the screen and covered with a lid. After a few minutes, a bamboo stick is used to strip the thin layer of flour off the screen. Then it is rolled up and sprinkled with fried onions.

A small village in a suburb of Hanoi is famous for its banh cuon. People there serve it with a dressing comprised of lean meat, shrimps, mushrooms, dried onions, fish sauce, and pepper. All the ingredients are stir-fried and rolled into a banh cuon. Banh cuon is delicious when it is very thin, white, and sticky. It is even tastier when dipped in a sweet, sour, and spicy sauce.

Sticky rice cakes are a Vietnamese traditional dish that must be part of Tet meals. As a matter of fact, every Vietnamese family must have sticky rice cakes among the offerings placed on the altar to their ancestors. Bang chung is made of glutinous rice, pork meat, and green beans paste wrapped in a square of bamboo leaves, giving the rice a green colour after boiling.

According to the legend, under the reign of the Hung Kings, Prince Lang Lieu created sticky rice cakes and presented them to his father. Bang Chung won high acclaims from the King who awarded the prince his throne. Making sticky rice cakes is a very meticulous job. To obtain the best cakes, rice has to soak in water for an entire day. The pork meat must include skin and fat, the green beans must be of the same size, and the bamboo leaves must be fresh. Squaring off and tying cakes with bamboo strings requires skilful hands. sticky rice cakes are available at any time of the year, although one is sure to enjoy them with relatives and friends during Tet. During Tet, rice cakes are served with Gio Lua and Hanh muoi- lean meat pie and salted sour onions.

Grilled rice is mostly served in the fall. After collecting the rice from the fields, several steps have to be performed to obtain excellent com. After removing the grains from their hulks, the rice is wrapped in lotus leaves to keep it from drying and to allow it to absorb the lotus flavor.

Grilled rice can be found everywhere in Vietnam, but the best com is found in Vong village, 5 km from Hanoi. People in this village still use traditional secret recipes. People eat grilled rice with eggs, bananas, or sapodillas.

Lean pork pie is available in Vietnam only and has different names in the north and south.
Foreigners as well as Vietnamese are fond of lean pork pie.
Gio lua consists of pork meat wrapped in fresh banana leaves. The little bundles are then boiled. The most delicious part of lean pork pie is the top layer since it absorbs the flavour of the banana leaves.

Trang Bang, located 40 km from Ho Chi Minh City, is where one can find the best rice paper and rice cakes.

Both can be found everywhere, but nowhere are they better than in Trang Bang where they are made from local rice. The rice flour is roasted for four or five hours and made into thick cakes. Once the cakes are dried, they are placed into nylon bags.

These cakes can be eaten with shrimp, meat, salad, and coriander. During Tet, the cakes are served with roasted meat, eggs, and sour mustard.

The best Banh Tom is being sole at the Nha Hang Ho Tay (Ho Tay Restaurant) on the banks of Truc Bach Lake, close to Ho Tay (West Lake) in Hanoi. While dinners await the arrival of the hot fried shrimp pastry, they can enjoy the picturesque lake and landscapes offered by the vast expanse of water from West Lake and the tree-lined Thanh Nien Road.

The dish should be eaten as soon as it arrives at the table. The fried pastry is topped with red shrimps and is eaten together with dishes of spicy vegetables mixed with sweet and sour sauce or fresh chili.

To remind you of the local shrimping business, waiters will often tell you that the shrimps that you have ordered for your meal have just been netted in nearby West Lake. This will be a memorable meal that will ensure that you remember your stay in Hanoi.

Mienthreads are very long and tough, made from a kind of tuber plant called cassava. When served, the long tiny flour threads are cut into smaller pieces. Like rice vermicelli, this kind of cassava vermicelli is used to make several different dishes, the most popular being Mien Ga (chicken cassava vermicelli), Mien Bo (beef cassava vermicelli), and Mien Luon (eel cassava vermicelli).
Cassava vermicelli is also used for different dishes which are stirred in oil, such as Mien Xao Thit (vermicelli and pork stirred in fat), Mien Xao Long Ga (vermicelli and chicken tripe stirred in fat), and Mien Xao Cua Be (vermicelli and sea crab meat stirred in fat

This dish is a combination of a variety of fresh vegetables, usually used in salads in Western countries. The make-up of Nom, however, is slightly different.

The main ingredients of Nom include grated pieces of turnip, cabbage, or papaya, and slices of cucumber with grated, boiled, lean pork. Other auxiliary ingredients include grated carrot, slices of hot chilly, and roasted ground nuts. These are used to make the dish more colourful. All are mixed thoroughly before being soaked in vinegar, sugar, garlic, hot chilly, and seasoned with salt.

The presentation of the dish is also very meticulous. The mixture of ingredients is put into a dish before being covered with vegetables.

When Hue natives living outside the city return to their homeland, they usually have sour shrimp. Tourists also make sure to buy some jars of sour shrimp before leaving Hue.
Because of the national reputation of this dish, some cooks and merchants specialize in making sour shrimp. In the past, people made this dish at home, but now it is easier to buy it at the market.
This dish can be prepared with any kind of shrimp. The recipe includes a number of steps that must be performed in a specific order. First, the fresh, clean, and dry shrimp of approximately the same size are put in wine along with dry bamboo shoots, garlic, and chili. The ingredients are kept in a closed container at room temperature for three days. Then the container is put in a cool, dry place. After five or seven days, the sour shrimp are ready.

Hot white rice is part of every meal in Vietnam, but only Hue mussel rice is served cool. Hue people, after deciding that no food should be wasted, have designed this dish using leftover rice. This dish includes Chinese vermicelli, Bamboo shoots, lean pork meat, and an assortment of green vegetables (banana leaves, mint, star fruit, etc.).
The broth obtained after boiling the mussels is used to flavour the rice. Ginger, sesame, and chili are also added to the broth. This dish is very spicy and it is not rare to see people with watery eyes and sweaty faces while eating it; nevertheless, everyone congratulates the cook for such a delicious meal.

One must have years of experience to cook excellent Hue beef noodle soup. This recipe mainly consists of shredded meat and rice noodles. Most restaurants and merchants in Hue do not make the rice noodles themselves; they buy them in Van Cu and Bao Vinh, two villages located near Hue. Learning how to make a clear broth from bone and meat is also a difficult task, but cooks have the satisfaction of seeing customers enjoying a good meal. The secret of this recipe resides in the meat-this is why it must be bought directly from the slaughterhouse early in the morning. The meat is then shredded, boiled, and taken out of the water to obtain a delicious clear broth.

The amount of salt put in the recipe varies depending on the season; during summer, Hue beef noodle soup is served with soy bean, mint, and different kinds of lettuce; in the winter, the recipe is saltier and lemongrass and fish sauce are added.